A viable alternative ?

PeteMo

PeteMo

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Currently have a D700 & D300 and mainly shoot family portraits (indoor & outdoor). I have a handful of weddings next year.

With this in mind, I'm seriously condsidering swapping to a pair of D7000's mainly for 2 reasons:-

1) twin slots
2) identical bodies/equal iso capabilities.

I've no doubt they will do the job and suit both purposes and I couldn't give a fudge what people think a tog "should" be using for a wedding (D3/3s/800 etc).

I won't be doing enough of them for the bodies to get hammered and even if I did, they're cheap enough to replace.

Lenses aside for now, anyone particularly agree/disagree or use twin "consumer" bodies for weddings ?

Thoughts appreciated.
 
Only my opinion Pete, but I think you'd be crazy to swap a D700 for a D7000. Why would you want to lose the FF quality and low light ability?

I know the D7000 is no slouch, but for paid jobs where your reputation is on the line - no way

Mike
 
Hi Mike, purely for the 2 reasons I've given.

I;m quite happy with what I have and the D700 is great - just trying to be practical and looking ahead :thumbs:
 
i can't really understand the step down from FF, especially for wedding stuff. twin slots are nice, but you can get a bigger card or buy a cheap laptop to backup to during the day if card failure is a concern. why don't you ditch the 300 and find another 700 if you want a matching pair? /confused
 
Plus, I'm sure that the D7000 is more than capable of producing pro results - I wouldn't rely on my gear for that.
 
I don't understand the logic in "stepping down" from FF. That's a mental thing.
 
You missed off the "especially for wedding stuff" part, which makes it a viable all be it "mental" query.
 
pooley said:
Only my opinion Pete, but I think you'd be crazy to swap a D700 for a D7000. Why would you want to lose the FF quality and low light ability?

Mike
Click to expand...

I know a well known wedding tog on here who uses crop bodies and I wouldn't dream of saying "yeah, your images are great BUT they'd be much better if you were using FF".

Plus, I don't think I'd be losing out too much on low-light ISO. Glad to be told otherwise though.
 
Its your money, but surely low light ability is something you will have to contend with over the coming year, and 'looking to the future' by buying 2 year old technology seems a liitle strange to me.

I don't know what lenses you have at present, so that maybe somwhere you need to spend.

Very few clients will care what camera you use, but they will be upset if the end result is lower in IQ than necessary, even when you explain the merits of twin card slots to them

Mike
 
pooley said:
'looking to the future' by buying 2 year old technology seems a liitle strange to me.

Mike
Click to expand...

But I'd be sticking to even older tech with what I already have.

I'm not convinced that the IQ would be noticeably lower either.

Not looking for an argument Mike just weighing up the possibilities.
 
pooley said:
I'll leave it with you then, I don't think anyone will sway you. Best of luck with your business (that sounds like I'm being sarky but its not meant that way)

Mike
Click to expand...

Cheers Mike, I haven't decided on anything though, that's why I'm asking the question :)
 
Why not sell the D300 and buy another D700 loads of low mileage ones going cheap nowadays :)
 
That would solve half my dilemma but not the "twin slots'".

Don't get me wrong, I'd be happy with 2 D700's normally.
 
PeteMo said:
That would solve half my dilemma but not the "twin slots'".

Don't get me wrong, I'd be happy with 2 D700's normally.
Click to expand...

I take it the 2 slots are a belt and braces thing using one as a backup ?
 
There's the school of thought that says your customers deserve the best quality images you can give them:geek:.

Then there's the business decision that says you have to run efficiently and make a profit:love:.

Your customers will never know how much better a shot might have looked taken with better quality gear, nor would most people be able to see the difference unless you pointed it out to them.

Would the bride know whether the Rolls taking her to the church was a 3 speed auto or the smoother 4 speed? The chauffeur could probably bore for England on the differences and how much 'nicer' the drive was in one of them though.

As photographers we need to remember what's important to our customers:
  • Customer service
  • Selection of Photographs
  • Quality of finished products

I dare say slightly muddier blacks and noisier shadows on the dance shots wouldn't enter their minds, they'll see the connection between themselves, they'll remember how they felt at the time:love:. If we capture it with great timing and nice lighting, will a few coloured speckles under a distant table matter a toss?
 
I can see where you are coming from with the redundancy of twin slots for weddings, I wouldn't feel confident with a single slot, I had one SD card die completely on me, nothing on it luckily but I would imagine the feeling of loosing someones wedding photo's being an absolute heartbreaking experience all round.

As long as you can produce the goods I would say go for it, what's that saying, it's not the equipment but the guy behind doing the work that makes a photo, something like that.
 
I suppose that what I'm getting at is if :

a) I can swap the D700 for 2 D7000's (give or take £100)

b) keep the D300 (as an additional back-up)

and, more importantly

c) keep IQ pretty much the same

then it may be worth doing as,

1) my reasons for actually doing it have been met

2) I'm not suffering financially for doing it

3) I'm happy that the quality of product is at a level the customer should expect

If the slightly newer tech is good enough to achieve the same or very similar end product it would seem logical to do (much as I like the D700 but it is just a tool)
 
Well technically with having the 16v12 megapixel sensor on a crop should be very good anyway to which I guess you all ready know about, like you say, it's just a tool, plus I think the twin card slots are worth there wait in gold for weddings alone and would swing it for me, plus I don't know how old or how much use you have had out of the D700 but if like you say you can get 2xD7000 for the price of yours nearly, it sounds a good plan to me.

What about getting a d7000 first to try it out to see if it's up to the job before selling your D700, if that's feasible.
 
The D600 (and D7000) don't share the same battery as the D700/D300. By all accounts the D7000 has reasonable high ISO performance but I'm not sure it's up to that of the FF bodies.

Personally, I would (in a professional situation) like to have as much swappable between bodies as possible, so I would like them to share batteries, cards, grips (if I used them) etc. A matched pair of identical bodies does also have the advantage of familiarity - you'll be able to swap between them and know exactly where all the buttons are.

As long as the quality's there to keep any clients happy, I can't see a problem with using "consumer" level bodies as long as they don't let you down.
 
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